Monday, March 27, 2006

Saturday, March 25, 2006

It's only a ballot measure, but still.... it is like AZ declaring the Sun is its official energy source. Here's the latest in the language war news from the state of Arizona (copied from the Stephen Krashen list serve):

Friday, March 24, 2006

Official-English measure gets House approvalTucson Citizen

The Arizona House approved a proposed ballot measurethat would make English the state's official languageand require government functions be conducted inEnglish.

A similar proposal made it through the Republican-ledLegislature last year, but was vetoed by DemocraticGov. Janet Napolitano. She said she believednon-English speakers should be encouraged to learn thelanguage, but the vetoed bill did nothing toward thatend.

The House's 34-22 vote yesterday sent the resolutionto the Senate. If approved by the full Legislature,this year's proposal would bypass the governor and bedecided by voters in December.

A similar voter-approved law making English thestate's official language was overturned in 1998. Thelaw, approved in 1988, was declared unconstitutionalby the state Supreme Court, which ruled the changeviolated free-speech rights.

The Arizona House has approved a ballot measure tomake English the stateís official language(Official-English measure gets House approval, March24).

As Cartoonist Tommy Tomorrow once pointed out, makingEnglish our official language makes as much sense asdeclaring the sun our official source of energy.English already is the de facto official language ofevery state in the United States, and nearly allimmigrants are highly motivated to acquire and improvetheir English. According to the 2000 Census, only onepercent of the US population cannot speak English. (In1890, 3.6 percent of the population could not speakEnglish.)

Politicians should spend their time with legislationthat actually serves the public interest, not with"feel-good" proposals that do nothing.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

I woke up this morning knowing that I'd do something different. I wasn't hungry for my usual Japanese-y breakfast of rice, miso soup, and vegetables with tea. I didn't feel like lingering over my tea with Yuki and Jesse and an educational linguistics book. I didn't have a teapot to draw or paint and I'd already written in my journal. I showered, dressed, and took Yuki outside with me. We started walking down the path towards downtown Monterey. It was 7am. We made a brief stop near the blue heron trees, just long enough to count three herons in two different nests (the other day there were five). And, another stop to watch a snail slowly (snailingly?) scaling a garden wall. Once past the snail, I felt my automated MCFD (Magnetic Café Finder Device) click on and knew I could trust its guidance. Soon, I was crossing onto Alvarado Street, then tying Yuki to a table outside of Café Noir where I ordered a café au lait to go. My MCFD did not steer me wrong. A little sprinkle of chocolate, another of nutmeg, a lid, and I was good to go. But that's not all. In a matter of minutes, I was taking in the curly sculptured goldenrod facade of the California State Theatre, and then opening the door of Red's Donuts. I'd made a mental note to go in there someday to take a photograph of the customers I'd seen through the glass, all of them sitting there with their donuts and coffee, regulars chatting on the swivel stools at the counter, all in a row, steamy warm inside, cold and wet outside. I was inside the door now, actually half inside, because I couldn't bring Yuki in with me. I looked at the donuts in the case. What to order? I don't know the names of donuts; I don't know the language of donuts.... The donut woman must have seen my ignorance, for she offered me several choices, jellies, maple covered, custard-filled.... I picked one that looked good to me, asking for "one of the twisted ones", as a tug from Yuki reminded me he was still on the other end of the leash. So, I paid and left, walking happily on the sunny streets, alternating bites of sweet, oily donut with sips of creamy coffee. Was it the caffeine that produced the joyful giddiness I felt while walking back home? Was it the sugary donut? Or, was my joy due simply to the refreshment--and my acute awareness--of doing something different?

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Another left-handed experiment. This time I sketched and painted the whole thing with my non dominant left hand. It's getting easier, but I still want to use my right hand sometimes for more control. As the saying goes, perseverance furthers one to cross the great waters. I think that's from the Tao te ching.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Thursday, March 02, 2006

This morning I walked with Yuki down the winding footpath past the high school to the gully where the oak trees grow. I always think of Ireland here, and though I've never been to Ireland, I imagine it is like this place: green, moist, and thick with moss. There's a shed with a rusty tin roof here, and a stand of curvy oak trees with a narrow stream of water flowing through. From the gully, I look up into the tall pines across the road, high up to the nest of the Great Blue Herons. Yesterday, one of the adult herons flew over my head towards the nest with what looked like a giant stick in between her beak. Then I watched as she inserted her long beak into the beak of the baby heron in the nest and shook the stick-like thing into the baby's long throat. The stick might have been a snake or a fish that just looked like a stick. Today I heard the heron's call, raspy and low. According to my Golden guide to Birds of North America, what I heard was the alarm call, "a series of about 4 hoarse squawks" (p. 94 in my 1966 edition). That's exactly what I heard. Here's the heron page from A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America (p. 95) and my photo (sans telephoto lens) of the adult heron I saw today.